The front occupation on the Allied side before the gas attack looked as follows: north of the Steenstrate bridge was the Belgian 6th Army Division along the western bank of the canal. Between Steenstrate to the north of Langemark was the 87th French Territorial Division (which consisted of older reserve soldiers, the so-called ‘Pépères’).
the German forces, which were much stronger in numbers: facing the Belgians were the 45th Reserve Division.
Until February 1915, the Grenadiers held the enemy in bay in front of Diksmuide.
When, thanks to the influx of recruits, volunteers and the healed wounded, four battalions were re-established, the regiment relieved the French in the trenches of Steenstrate from March to July / August 1915. It is in this sector that, on 22 April, the Grenadiers withstood the first German attack with gas.
When, thanks to the influx of recruits, volunteers and the healed wounded, four battalions were re-established, the regiment relieved the French in the trenches of Steenstrate from March to July / August 1915. It is in this sector that, on 22 April, the Grenadiers withstood the first German attack with gas.
Before the attack the occupation of the canal bank was extended to the south, a post of grenadiers in the ruins of a house at the bridge of ‘Steenstrate’ is in constant communication with the French troops. The defences in the south of the sector, between the mill of Lizerne and the canal, are urgently built up.
Steenstrate was a small hamplet, with about 8 houses close to the bridge
And then on 22.04.915 around 5 pm all hell breaks loose on the French trenches, artillery fire and smoke, a bit later artillery fire for the trenches of the Grenadiers. The gas does not really reach them .The following is described :
A copper-coloured vapour rises from the German trenches, the wind is favourable for them and soon it puffs a heavy cloud towards Steenstrate.
In the French positions east of the Canal soldiers reach for their throats and fall down, others flee, the Germans do wait an hour ( other source says 15 minutes) before venturing out, Without stopping they rise from their trenches. They do succeed to occupy the west bank of the canal and the ruins at Steenstrate, So the communication with the French is broken. On the 23rdthe battle does go on and the Germans do get in the hamlet of Lizerne, their next move is to attack towards the mill so they could out flank. However, they are met with a fierce fire and so they fail to reach their goal : the Lizerne mill.( sorry I can not find a picture of that mill, it was destroyed on the 18thof October 1914 reason why this blog was postponed ).
In : Königlich Preußisches Reserve Infanterie-Rgt. Nr. 211 im Weltkriege 1914-1918, is written that the only location they hit a strong resistance was at Steenstraete. where our( yep I am Belgian) grenadiers were. But they also write that the estimate losses on Belgian and French side are about a division together.
Now knowing me, I had to flip through a few search engines, On Belgian side I find about 210 – 225 casualties for the 22 till 25 th of April not all died on the battlefield area of Steenstrate ( hospital in France, accident, even a drowning.
Finding the POW is hopeless if you don’t have the names, ( but I did try)
By checking everything you can think off, I found that the book published in 1934 has a few casualties not on their list. I’ll give two
Beelen Ludovicus went missing on the 24th and we have no known grave and Garcy Etienne missing on the 25thsame issue no known grave.
The 25thof April the Grenadiers are relieved and move to their camp at Elzendamme ( Vleteren)
One picture in the book’ les grenadiers à steenstraat par le lt.col BEM Delfosse 1934′ just caught my eye, a dead grenadier, no name off course that means I had to dig deeper. There is a list with all the casualties of 1915( 223 names) but I still had to check out the date of death, plus trying to find a picture of every casualty and we know by now that this is a nearly impossible task. So once again a dead end blog . Plus there is the possibility that this picture is just fake, what are the odds that the camera man was there at the time the grenadier was shot? One casualty I did find a picture in my own library.
CONSTANT JAN LEO KRICK IS ONE OF THE VICTIMS ON BELGIAN SIDE , SEE PART OF HIS FILE IT MENTIONS LOCATION AND DATE, PLUS WHERE HE WAS BURIED AT THE TIME.
Sources : Les grenadiers à steenstraat par le Lt. Col Delfosse vertaling door kapitein Van Dyck (1934)
Onze helden gesneuveld voor het vaderland (1931)
both books I have in my own library
ABL history forum